Diary of a Vet Student

Mt head is so full of worms. I even dreamt about them last night and woke up in fits and starts saying "toxocara, toxoplasmosis, long spicules". Oh Nora Batty. I had my parasitology practical this morning and now I just have the written to do next weak and I can relax over worms. they're so frustrating, it seems that as soon as you put one of them in your head another falls out.

I really wish I could tell you about all the amazing crazy wild student things i'm doing right now, but the sad fact is I am revising twenty four seven. Infact I was quite excited about the exam today, because it meant I was able to change out of my pyjamas for the first time this week and see people who aren't my flatmates.

I have a practical day in pathology on Monday, which will involve drawing and diagnosing what I see down a microcope and describing and diagnosing what I see in the post mortem room. Then Wednesday is microbiology practical (bacteria and yeast identification) and the written exam (bacter, fungi, viruses and public health)

We had a series of public health lectures at the very end of term, which will defo be in the exam so i am battling with them at the moment. PH is all about how animal effet human health, through zoonoses, wastes from farms and veterinary clinics, water bourne and food bourne diseases.

Ok back to me study.

Nearly there.... :)

Well I studied my little sox off yesterday afternoon. I strongly recommend power naps. My flat mate and I have discovered this brilliant invention and have learnt to love it. Also went for a nice bike ride along the canal with a mate but after getting rudely heckled by a group of ragga-muffins we decided to cycle back (quite quickly).

Anyway. Have come in today for a pathology lecture on the female reproductive tract. Don't know what it is about reproductive stuff, but I find it really interesting (we're talking animals and drugs and inflammation and stuff here, don't get too excited). I'm just waiting for the next lecture to start. After that he is going to talk give a "recreational" lecture on forensic pathology and the law, which sounds really good. Unfortunately no one will go because we will all be heading to the library to study (exams and no time for recreation). Poor us.

Anyway (again). I think there is a true/alse practise session for pharmacology this afternoon. Our exam involves 2 essays, 1 true/false set and one multichoice set of questions and then a series of "paragraph" answer questions. You'd think the T/F and multichoice would be easy, but they can lose you a lot of marks, because they are negatively marked, ie if you guess and get it wrong your up the Kiver.

And as for tonight, I'm going on a date with Charlie from Busted and then I think I'll watch a DVD. Of course that is a blatant lie. i will really be studying more pharmacology and eating a tin of biscuits.

:)

Hello. It's so sunny in Glasgow. As my flat mate's mum says, it is "exam weather". It's always sunny when we're revising. This is good in some ways at it makes you feel cheery bright. It's bad though, because you can't go out in it as much. Just keep the fingers crossed that it will be like this when we finish our exams. My flatmates and I have decided to burn off all the excess energy we have gathered (thank you Mcvites) by doing a mammoth bike expedition from Glasgow to Edinburgh all in one day. Luckily my mate's Mum lives in Ed so we can be expected to be treated like war heroes on our arrival and given copious amounts of icecream and tea to restock our dimminished supplies.

Anyway. need to get through the tiny little obstacles that are the exams first. The first one is next Friday - parasitology practical. So not long then.

I spent last weekend locked away in my room. I communicated with my flatmates by text message most of the time to save time walking across the hall. Oh yes we are at full throttle now. (p.s I am not really this sad and only communicated in this way once really, partly because I would get deep vein thrombosis if I sat at my desk all day and partly because my flat mate called me a fat lazy @@***** when I did).

This wee,k so far has been prettyjam packed. I was at the vet schooll all day on Monday for the public health lectures that took place all morning. In the afternoon we had pathology lectures on the muscle and bone and then we had revision practicals in haematology. These are always depressing when you think you're doing alright and then can't answer many questions!

Tuesday was a similar story. It's a bit crazy that we have lectures so close to the exams, but it's because the term is so short. At least we will have a mightily big summer holiday. Woopee!

Can't believe I have just said "woopee".

Anyway I have pathology this morning followed by parasitology revision turorials, which I am sciving to go to the gym, because I think I will be better off learning it at home.

Bye :)

Crikey Mikey. Exams are getting close. The vet school has shortened the summer term by 2 weeks for some reason. Not sure why, but it means that straight after Easter we were plunged into serious exam revision. This is despite the fact that we have only just finished our Easter exams. It's OK because the thoughts of summer holidays keep your chin up (well if you're me they do anyway, because I am a bit daft), but it is a hard slog.

Anyway 1 hour of disinfectants lecture has done me the world of good. We need to know all the different types, their pros and cons and what you can use them on. Another long list. I really want to meet that guy who has the "Guinus book of records" record for the most fantastic memory. IfI met him I would discuss techniques and the methods I could use to memorise one million bacteria, viruses and drugs.

Anyway. I had a pathology practical session on Tuesday afternoon. This was a mock practical exam situation. We have two practicals in pathology. One is based on histopathology and the other is based on gross specimens. We were practising the gross specimens. This will consist of 10 tables with different specimens, which have different lesions. We have to identify the organ (this can be a pretty big obstacle in itself). Then we have to identify which animal it's from. Then we have to describe the lesion using terms that describe the size, shape, colour, consistancy, taste (only kidding) distribution, location. Then we have to give a morphological diagnosis like "acute suppurative necrotising pleuropneumonia". Finally we have to suggest an aetiogenesis. This means we have to suggest what caused the disease, eg Mycoplasma hyopneumoniae. As you can imagine I was pretty nackered after 10 tables-worth of that carry-on. It also made me realise I have quite a lot of work to do. Thus I spent quite a lot of time revising pathology on Tuesday and Wednesday. Pathology is Ok though, because it is a logical progression of facts, rather than tooooo many lists, so I don't mind really.

Anyway. the footy girls beat the medics on Monday. Despite a nasty tackle from the medics, which caused one of our girls to dislocate her knee. Boo. Hiss.

Right i'm off to a really fascinating lecture now on washing detergents or something.......... :)

The weekend was May day bank holiday here. That usually means my esteemed flatmates and I take ourselves off for a day of icecream and dog shows at the vetschool rodeo and then end the event with a grand piss up in the marquee, where I usually fall off a table. This year it was my fantasamic mate's 21st so i chugged of back home and spent the weekend playing party games and bouncing my socks (and unfortunately my trousers - sorry to the small children) on the bouncy castle.

Back up in Glasgow this week and trying to crack on with my revision. it makes you feel much happier when the sun is out. I have a load of things planned for Summer, which is making me work faster so i can avoid re-sitting and do it all. The big plan is to work full time at a seed factory all summer. Then visit Poland, where i'm going to work on an organic farm with my sister and do some camping. Finally I'm going to spend the end of September and start of October seeing practise.

It's strange because i won't be coming back to Glasgow next year. I'm going to Bristol to intercalate. hence the need to get lots of money together this summer. I'm hoping my LEA will also help with funding, but I'm working on it at the moment. Apparently they will fund you for up to 6 years and this would bring my total up to 6. It's a bit scary to think I'm going to be graduating after my 19 year old sister and I'm 21! Also quite scary to think of all my debts. Nee bother. Lets not go there.

Ok I have a pathology lecture on muscle diseases now. :)